OR Nurses

[cmp137]

I am thinking about becoming an OR nurse, but wearing goggles with a facemask makes my prescription glasses fog up. Does anyone know if I can get prescription goggles that would protect from body fluids and not just flying debris?

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

I believe you can, but they are not cheap. Not sure if they'd be covered by insurance- check with yours to see what they allow. Does your facility not offer a face shield mask that is anti-fog? If not, perhaps they'd be willing to investigate it. My facility's face shield masks are anti-fog. Some people go for extra anti-fogness and wear the non-face shield anti-fog mask under the face shield anti-fog mask.

[FurBabyMom, MSN, RN]

I wear contacts when I scrub most of the time anyways. Then the regular (non mask) eye wear is more comfortable for me. I wear the anti-fog mask regardless, it's more comfortable to me than the other.

You can probably get those type of goggles... Some of the sports eye wear might work - the ones that look like swim goggles with prescription lenses. Insurance might not cover your goggles but you could write them off on taxes as a work related expense.

[brownbook]

I just work pre- op and PACU, occasionally do moderate sedation in the OR, but there are face shields that are clear plastic that, well kind of like what you see people welding lead use to protect their eyes from sparks. These are light weight, hang down the front of your face via a kind of head band. Seems it would work fine for you? I've never seen goggles, or don't understand your description? These type of face shields, there are a variety of styles, are very common in our OR?

[MereSanity]

Pinch the nose. I wear glasses and don't have an issue. Good luck!

[auralee]

I routinely wear a mask with a shield AND I wear glasses. Sometimes it takes a little experimentation to get the airflow going the right way, i.e. not up around the nose onto your lenses. As MereSanity recommended pinch the nose piece. Play around with it and soon you'll get it just right, every time!

[SurgicalTechCST]

If it doesn't bother your skin, I know a couple of people who used a small piece of paper tape across the top of the mask over the bridge of the nose, and it pretty much eliminated the fogging problem. Other masks have a bit of foam cushioning over the nasal bridge that helped reduce the air escape out the top of the mask that fogs the lenses.

Some of us also used to save back any unopened bottles of anti fog solution that came with the little sponges to use on laproscopes. Some places called it "Fred" for "F-og RED-uction" solution, and it seemed to work quite nicely on glasses lenses.